Amy Eldridge Announces Run For Select Board Seat

Holdgate's Laundry manager and ‘Sconset resident Amy Eldridge is running for Select Board this spring, making her the first to pull papers in the high-profile election.

Eldridge grew up on Nantucket, attended Nantucket High School, and has spent almost all of her adult life on the island. In an interview with the Current Tuesday night, she repeatedly emphasized tax rates and cost-of-living issues as the primary reasons for her decision to enter the race for Nantucket's lead policymaking body.

“There's a lot of people in the community, good people, who are not really informed about what's going on in the community, how our tax dollars are being spent,” Eldridge said. “I think for some, it gets lost that not everybody here isn't living paycheck to paycheck…I really feel like there's a lot of spending and it's forcing a lot of the middle class off, because there's really no help.”

Incumbent Select Board member Malcolm MacNab told the Current on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election.

"After three and a half years on the Select Board, I have decided that the time is right for me to step aside and let a fresh new voice be heard," MacNab said. "And as I approach 80, I am not as sharp as I used to be."

Select Board member Tom Dixon’s term also expires this spring. Dixon did not return a message sent by the Current regarding his decision to run for reelection or not.

It could spell the end of MacNab’s lengthy career in public service, which included a stint on the Select Board and a lengthy term on the Board of Health, where he was the chair for many years.

Eldridge is a regular at Select Board meetings, often going to the mic to ask questions of the board and the town employees who present to them.

“I want to bring more awareness to things that are going on, and some more accountability to us as the voters. I feel like there are things that we vote on at Town Meeting that [the town administration is] not being held accountable for,” Eldridge said, citing a recent Town Meeting vote in favor of a hunting range on-island that has not yet been realized as an example. “I'm hoping to bring some more common sense, listening, and understanding to the board. Again, I know that I don't have a lot of experience, but you have to get it somewhere. And I just feel like now is the time if we want to keep our children and our grandchildren here.”

Eldridge said that friends and family members pushed her to run for Select Board, and that she hopes to give a voice to islanders who may be afraid to speak out because of potential ramifications from the employers or customers.

Speaking with the Current on Tuesday, Eldridge said that she has ties to the first European settlers on Nantucket.

“My family goes back to the original three English settlers. My Great Aunt Esther Gibbs was the second female Select Board member in Nantucket in the late 70s,” she said. “I lived here my whole life, I have grown up in the good times, the bad times. There's no other place in the world I'd want to live.”